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Topic: America's Cup (Read 2715 times)

That sport where you need about a hundred million to get a team in it, where the previous winners can set the rules to whatever they want!

There is Team USA who has an Australian at the wheel.Team Japan has a New Zealander at the wheel.Team GB has an Olympian who has won more sailing medals than anyone by the sounds of it. He seems to think this race is actually a demolition derby and keeps crashing into other boats/the wharf.Team Sweden has an Australian at the wheelFrance and NZ actually have someone from their country driving

The Australians withdrew, maybe due to their best people on other boats? lol

Some of it all seems a bit silly, in the previous cup, after it was over, they said the boats would never sail again. They needed a massive crane to lift them out of the water and put them back which is expensive to operate.

I'm fairly sure Kiwis only ones who care about this. It's difficult to understand the rules because they change so frequently and there's a lot of shady stuff that goes on, but it's all overt, which I like. The same things happen in all sports, except it's done behind closed doors and not acknowledged. At least with the America's Cup it's like, "Yeah we didnt like that so we changed the fucking rules - deal with it".

The new boats are amazing - the speed they get is insane, as well as the maneuverability. In our race this morning the Swedish team forced us to go around them when we were crossing paths and at about 30 knots we turned on a dime, avoided them and then carried on. Was incredible. Makes the old mono-hull boats look like ancient technology.

Watching the sailing in the morning beats the usual breakfast programming nonsense the Mrs insists on watching.

1) There is no ball to be passed/hit/kicked2) There is no stadium3) They are holding this in Bermuda this time? lol4) Needs frequent commercial breaks so people can buy stuff and drink/eat5) No college sailing to get people to follow etc

I find it hard to care about these rich boys' toys, it's basically like Formula 1 but with a veneer of national representation. My cynicism of it kicked off with the Peter Blake red socks campaign in 1995, which seemed to me at the time a lame attempt at manufacturing grass-roots support. I was quite interested in the racing itself though, but then when the government sunk so much public money into the defence campaigns I started to actively dislike it.

I do have a small amount of vicarious patirotic pride that so much of the boat design and build expertise comes out of NZ, and it looks like TNZ are doing alright so :thumbs up:

My cynicism of it kicked off with the Peter Blake red socks campaign in 1995, which seemed to me at the time a lame attempt at manufacturing grass-roots support.

You watch your stinkin' mouth....

We won today, so hurrah to that. The races against Oracle will be great - clearly the two best boats/teams. I know less that nothing about sailing, but as far as entertainment value goes the America's Cup is fantastic so I will be tuning in.